Mercury Arc Rectifier - Manx Electric Railway - Laxey I.O.M.

Mercury Arc Rectifier working at the Manx Electric Railway sub station at Laxey Isle of Man in October 2010. There aren't many of these working outside of museums and it is rumoured that this particular installation may be replaced within 2 years.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Mercury
• Arc
• Rectifier
• Laxey
• Manx
• Electric
• Railway
• MER
• M.E.R.

[Beccacubbon]

I live there

[pgriffit0]

@Beccacubbon I live near Laxey

[b43xoit]

What is the modern replacement? A silicon rectifier? It will cut the power dissipation to what proportion of that of the mercury arc rectifier, for a given current?

[pgriffit0]

@b43xoit There is a plan to replace the whole power supply with solid state rectifiers (probably silicon). I would think a modern power supply would also contain some form of switched mode voltage regulation and over current protection

[b43xoit]

Current and power dissipation?

[pgriffit0]

@b43xoit I seem to remember that the output ammeter showed a a couple of hundred amps. The power unit has a matched pair of rectifiers and looking at the cabling, I would guess that each rectifier is a 3-phase unit and that the pair together provide full wave rectification. I'll do some research to try and find some technical specs.

[lolman2008112]

Eire yet fascinating

[DJelectfire]

Oh... my... that is so beautiful to watch... would be a pity to see it replaced my plain solid state.... at least put this in a museum and set it up so that it is running...

[Beccacubbon]

I've been to the isle of man

[pgriffit0]

yep that's it exactly